Posted on 01/17/2009 10:33:43 AM PST by Evil Slayer
GAZA (Reuters) - Israel plans to halt its Gaza offensive without any deal with Hamas, an Israeli official said on Saturday, in an apparent effort to deny the Islamist group any gains from the three-week-old conflict.
Hamas leaders in exile have vowed to fight on, but many of the 1.5 million Palestinians enduring incessant bombardment and privation in Gaza seemed desperate for their ordeal to end.
"The goal is to announce, subject to cabinet approval, a suspension of military activities because we believe our goals have been attained," said the official, asking not to be named.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
Fight Hamas mercilessly until they cease to exist, surrenders, disband and disarm.
Their stated goal was to prevent Hamas from being able to continue rocket attacks on Israeli territory. I doubt they have achieved this goal. Therefore I assume Israel has once again endeavored to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. When Netanyahu described the need for "decisive victory" I thought maybe they were starting to get it. But I guess not.
Hamas has lost control of Gaza; Israeli tanks now occupy it once again.
That alone discredits Hamas to its financial backers. The tunnels are caved in and the munitions aren’t being resupplied. Moreover, Hezbollah in Southern Lebanon refused to join the fight.
A double blow is thereby suffered by Hamas.
That is correct. The IDF needs to do some things. Follow Hamas leaders into a dark place in any country. Stick a weapon in the back of any of them and pull the trigger. Then walk away like nothing happened. No noise happens. That's called assassanation.
Those Arab countries are cheering Israel on privately. They do not like Iran at all.
A “cease fire” is not a “pull back.”
I’m glad to see that the rocket attacks against Israel have stopped. Oh, wait ...
Joe the plumber is over there. Maybe Hamas thinks it is not a good idea to get bashed in the head with a pipe?
“The Olmert gang is caving in”
Exactly right. That’s is exactly what they are doing! Olmert doesn’t have the guts to finish the job.
I hope and pray that Israel elects the Likud Party in the elections next month, so that Benjamin Netanyahu can be Prime Minister. He has the courage to finish the job and, under him, Israel will assure that Hamas is never a threat to them again!
Liberals in Israel are as hard to understand as those over here. Israel Matzav is liveblogging this, and very little of the news makes any sense to me.
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